Once more, with feeling? Rapide on the missing piece of the loyalty jigsaw

Loyalty programmes tell you what’s selling and who’s buying – and Britain is home to some of the world’s best. But is “keeping score” the same as true loyalty? Rapide thinks there’s an extra piece to the picture – and would like to share what it’s learned in over a decade working with over half the FTSE.

What’s become clear from over half a billion customer interactions is that the situation the customer experiences – from a simple chat with the Call Centre to a household crisis – hugely affects what they think of you, and also how likely they are to tell you about it! (Only 4% will ever tell you of a bad experience… And while a happy customer will tell 16 friends, an unhappy one rants to 64.)

This is the missing piece: understanding the customer’s emotional state, and making use of it to bad experiences into good ones and good ones into the stuff of legends.

Rapide calls these important interactions “Moments of Truth” – and some matter a great deal more than others.

What was the difference that delivered response rates of 52% for one company, when two others asking the same questions only reached 18%? How does a technology partner regularly get 90% of customers sharing their experiences? It’s all to do with the emotional bond, and how the customer felt when they interacted. At Loyalty World 2012 the company will share their stories – and others – with you. Most importantly, you’ll see the technology that delivers these results in action.

Rapide’s expertise with the mobile channel led it to develop “Rant & Rave”, a real-time customer feedback engine that “understands” customer feedback received via text messages, emails, voice messages and interactive surveys, aggregating everything from NPS scores to natural-language comments in simple charts and graphs. It’s multi-modal – after all, the channel of communication should be the customer’s choice – and always-on, since the most valuable feedback is collected in real-time. (And real-time means any time.)

See Rapide in Tuesday's 10am key note address where they’ll be sharing their success stories in person. (There’s also a free how-to document to get you thinking about the possibilities. Rapide calls them “Thought Bubbles”.) Look for Rapide on Stand 6.

Alternatively, register to come and see Mike McMaster, Head of Client Services, Rapide give a free live seminar on how to get to the heart of true customer loyalty at 3pm on the 5th November at the Hilton Metropole: Register for the seminar here